THE AGES DIGITAL LIBRARY COLLECTIONS THE DOWN GRADE CONTROVERSY by Charles Spurgeon To the Students of the Words, Works and Ways of God: Welcome to the AGES Digital Library. We trust your experience with this and other volumes in the Library fulfills our motto and vision which is our commitment to you: MAKING THE WORDS OF THE WISE AVAILABLE TO ALL — INEXPENSIVELY. AGES Software Albany, OR USA Version 1.0 © 1998 2 CONTENTS PREFACE: THE SWORD AND THE TROWEL, 1887 THE DOWN GRADE (MARCH, 1887) THE DOWN GRADE (APRIL, 1887) NOTES (APRIL, 1887) ANOTHER WORD CONCERNING THE DOWN GRADE (AUGUST, 1887) OUR REPLY TO SUNDRY CRITICS AND ENQUIRERS (SEPTEMBER, 1887) THE CASE PROVED (OCTOBER, 1887) A FRAGMENT UPON THE DOWN GRADE CONTROVERSY (NOVEMBER, 1887) RESTORATION OF TRUTH AND REVIVAL (DECEMBER, 1887) NOTES (DECEMBER, 1887) PREFACE: THE SWORD AND THE TROWEL, 1888 THE BAPTIST UNION CENSURE (FEBRUARY, 1888) NOTES (MARCH, 1888) PROGRESSIVE THEOLOGY (APRIL, 1888) NOTES (APRIL, 1888) NOTES (MAY, 1888) NOTES (JUNE, 1888) NOTES (JULY, 1888) NOTES (AUGUST, 1888) CURRENT RELIGIOUS PERILS (SEPTEMBER, 1888) NOTES (SEPTEMBER, 1888) NOTES (OCTOBER, 1888) 3 NOTES (NOVEMBER, 1888) ATTEMPTS AT THE IMPOSSIBLE (DECEMBER, 1888) NOTES (JANUARY, 1889) QUESTIONS FOR “DOWN GRADE” DOUBTERS (MARCH, 1889) NOTES (MAY, 1889) NOTES (JUNE, 1889) THIS MUST BE A SOLDIERS’ BATTLE (DECEMBER, 1889) NOTES (FEBRUARY, 1890) NOTES (MAY, 1890) “MR. SPURGEON’S CONFESSION OF FAITH” (AUGUST, 1891 ) A SERMON FOR THE TIME PRESENT (METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT, NO. 1990, OCTOBER 30, 1887) THE “DOWN GRADE” CONTROVERSY FROM MR. SPURGEON’S STANDPOINT (FROM THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY, VOL. IV) 4 PREFACE. WHEN the reader receives this number of the magazine, the Editor hopes to be traveling along the Corniche Road, which in some places winds its wondrous way far above the sea. One gazes down from above, and draws his breath. During the past year we have often had to look down from the royal road of the truth upon those craggy paths which others have chosen, which we fear will lead them to destruction. We have had enough of The Down-Grade for ourselves when we have looked down upon it. What havoc false doctrine is making no tongue can tell. Assuredly the New Theology can do no good towards God or man; it, has no adaptation for it. If it were preached for a thousand years by all the most earnest men of the school, it would never renew a soul, nor overcome pride in a single human heart. We look down into the abyss of error, and it almost makes our head swim to think of the perilous descent; but the road of the gospel, to which we hope to keep by divine grace, is a safe and happy way. Oh, that all would travel it! Oh, that our earnest pleadings, which have brought upon our devoted head so much of obloquy, would recall the churches to the good old way! Many of the papers in this volume have been reprinted, because friends have thought them specially useful, and many more have been translated to other magazines, which annexation we accept as a compliment, even where the name of The Sword and the Trowel has been inadvertently omitted. At the same time, borrowed articles should be acknowledged as distinctly as possible, and the paper in which they first appear should have the credit of them. In America, in all sorts of newspapers and magazines, we find pieces of our work, and we think, therefore, that our subscribers are not badly catered for. Our band of friends and helpers has suffered serious diminution by death during the last few months. The gaps in our ranks are many and wide. We earnestly pray that others may be moved to take the places of those who have gone home. Of course, our unflinching faithfulness may have driven away a few friends, though we are sure it has brought us more. Hitherto nothing has flagged. The Orphanage, and its half a thousand children, has had its table always supplied; the College has gone on educating men to preach the faith once delivered to the saints; the Evangelists have traveled 5 from place to place, and God has made them as clouds that water the earth; the Colporteurs have kept steadily to their useful toil; and Mrs. Spurgeon’s Book Fund has stocked poor ministers’ libraries in thousands of cases. To a large extent these works are kept going by the generosity of friends who read the weekly sermons and The Sword and the Trowel. Thanks, hearty and many, to them all for their loving aid. They would do us great service if they could increase the number of our subscribers, by inducing friends to take in the magazine. Ask them to begin in January. The sword and trowel have both been used this year with all our might. We have built up the wall of the city, and we have tried to smite the King’s enemies. How could we help it? No loyal soldier could endure to see his Lord’s cause so grievously wronged by traitors. Something will come of the struggle over The Down-Grade. The Lord has designs in connection therewith which his adversaries little dream of. Meanwhile, it behoves all who love the Lord Jesus and his gospel to keep close together, and make common cause against deadly error. There are thousands who are of one mind in the Lord; let them break through all the separating lines of sect, and show their unity in Christ, both by prayer and action. Especially do we beg for the fervent prayers of all the faithful in Christ Jesus. If our readers have hitherto counted us worthy, we again beg for their loving, practical sympathy, as we have enjoyed it these many years. The relationship between us and many of our readers is such as will outlast life itself. Very tenderly have our friends loved us. In the cup of human sympathy our God has brought us draughts of heavenly consolation. The Lord recompense our faithful helpers, and grant them mercy in that day! So prays the reader’s willing servant, C. H. SPURGEON. 6 THE DOWN GRADE (MARCH 1887) THE Act of Uniformity, which came into effect in 1662, accomplished the purpose of its framers in expelling Puritanism from the Church established by law in England and Wales. Puritanism was obnoxious to King Charles II. and his court, and a large majority of the men high in office in both Church and State, chiefly for the godliness of living which it enjoined, and for the Calvinism of its teaching. With the ejectment of the two thousand ministers who preferred freedom and purity of conscience to the retention of their livings, Calvinism was banished from the Church of England, excepting so far as the Articles were concerned. Arminianism took its place. Then the State Church, which the great reformers had planted, and which some of them had watered with their blood, presented the spectacle which went far to justify the sarcasm of an eminent writer, that she possessed “A Popish Liturgy, a Calvinistic Creed, and an Arminian Clergy.” The ejected were Calvinists almost to a man. Previous to this period, some few Free Churches had been founded, and were Independent or Baptist, the latter being mainly of the General section, and of Dutch origin. The ejected, who were in one sense alone the first Nonconformists, were mainly Presbyterians; some, however, were Independents, and a few Baptists. The Churches they established were all Calvinistic in their faith, and such they remained for at least that generation. It is a matter of veritable history, however, that such they did not all continue for any great length of time. Some of them, in the course of two or three generations, or even less, became either Arian or Socinian. This was eventually the case with nearly all the Presbyterians, and later on, with some of the Independents, and with many of the General Baptist Communities. By some means or other, first the ministers, and then the Churches, got on “the down grade,” and in some cases, the descent was rapid, and in all, very disastrous. In proportion as the ministers seceded from the old Puritan godliness of life, and the old Calvinistic form of doctrine, they commonly became less earnest and less simple in their preaching, more speculative and less spiritual in the matter of their discourses, and dwelt more on the moral teachings of the New Testament, than on the great central truths of 7 revelation. Natural theology frequently took the place which the great truths of the gospel ought to have held, and the sermons became more and more Christless. Corresponding results in the character and life, first of the preachers and then of the people, were only too plainly apparent. The race of preachers which followed the first Nonconformists, that is, the ejected ministers who became Nonconformists, retained the soundness of doctrine, and purity of life, for which they were everywhere remarkable. Their sermons were less lengthy, but still long, and less burdened with divisions and sub-divisions. The life, savor, and power of the gospel remained among them, and the churches, walking in the fear of God and the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were slowly increased. The Presbyterians were the first to get on the down line. They paid more attention to classical attainments and other branches of learning in their ministry than the Independents, while the Baptists had no academical institution of any kind. It would be an easy step in the wrong direction to pay increased attention to academical attainments in their ministers, and less to spiritual qualifications; and to set a higher value on scholarship and oratory, than on evangelical zeal and ability to rightly divide the word of truth.